Yesterday was a frustrating day. I felt like such a foreigner here. First, when I got on the bus to go to the hospital, the driver didn't want to let me use my student pass because he had never heard of Emory University. I calmly explained to him that I called the Sun Metro headquarters and that as long as I attend an accredited university within the United States, I am allowed to use a student pass. It was awkward because I'm not quite sure he believed that Emory was a real place, even though I showed him my ID that says "public health student."
Then I got to the health department to get my TB test (which is one of about 7 tests I need in order to get this crazy hospital clearance). After being told to go to four different clinics within the department, I finally ended up at the right place:
The woman at the front desk could not seem to understand (1) why I had a Massachusetts license, (2) why I needed a TB test if I didn't have any of the risk factors, or (3) why I didn't want an HIV test. The test was $9, and since I only had exactly $9 in my wallet I asked if I could pay with a check. The woman said yes, and then like 15 minutes later called me back up to the desk to tell me that they couldn't accept checks from out-of-state banks. I explained that I have Bank of America, but since my parents' address is on the top left, she said it wouldn't work there. Super strange. Luckily I had the cash though; otherwise I would have made the 30 minute bus trip there for no reason.
From there, I walked over to the hospital that is causing me all of this stress to get titers drawn. Yes, that's right; in addition to wanting to know that I've gotten all my vaccines (and that I've had chicken pox), they want to see proof from blood work that I have active immunity. On Tuesday, I had to get a lab order from my primary care physician in Massachusetts and then call my insurance company to find out where to get my blood drawn in Texas. Then I went to the lab yesterday, where the registration woman looked at me like I had a million heads. She didn't understand "why I was from Massachusetts but had Blue Cross Blue Shield of New England" (it took all of my strength not to laugh out loud when I realized she was serious) and she also told me about five different times that she couldn't find my doctor's name (you know, the one in Massachusetts...) on the hospital database. Finally, she just looked at me and said, "I don't get it. Why are you even here?" It seemed like a kind of long-winded story to tell the random woman at the hospital why I'm in El Paso and why I don't have anything, other than a library card and gym membership, that says I technically live here. Therefore, I simply said "To get my blood drawn." It was finally all taken care of, so hopefully the results will be okay and will make it from this hospital to my doctor (who has to read them), back to my office, and then back to this same hospital so that they finally let my study "begin."
It's weird being in a place, really for the first time in my life, that doesn't attract many people "from the outside." In my little bubble of El Paso, no one is actually from here; however, in the city as a whole, it seems that most people have either lived here or within like a 50 mile radius for their whole lives.
Anyway, things are honestly going well other than this little mishap with my study. On Monday, I submitted my one-month progress report to the people funding my project. On Tuesday, I had my best prenatal care observation/interview yet. This morning I presented the "emerging themes" from my first five interviews on each side of the border to my advisor at Emory and to the professor at BU who we're working with, and they both told me that they're really impressed with everything. Then, later this afternoon, I did my first postpartum interview with a woman, which went really well. And I got to meet her beautiful newborn daughter, which is always exciting! That's definitely the coolest part about my study- hearing how women are feeling before they go into labor and then talking to them after it's all over and they're holding their baby in their arms :)
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